Quote Originally Posted by EddieWalker View Post
A little off tangent here, but where I live, there is a creek about a mile away that runs parallel to the road I live on and empties into a big river. There is a very poor area along that creek that had some of the kids that live there start getting sick. It was just a few at first, but then the lawyers showed up and all of a sudden there was dozens of them, and even people that had just visited there said that they where sick too. I forget what the illness was, but it was environmentally related, or at least the lawsuit claimed it was.
There was a big company that owned about 500 acres upstream from that community that they blamed for contaminating the water. This made the news and it became kind of a circus. More people claiming to be sick and everyone pointing fingers at that business. The odd thing is that the business had not been in operation for a couple of years and the land had just been bought by another corporation that had just had the EPA approve their permits and licensing to start the business back up again.
When it ended, the law firm made a few million and the sick and so called sick ended up with almost nothing. They had to share a settlement amount that didn't amount to very much when everyone got their share. There might of actually been a few sick kids that could have used the money, but from what I've been told, they didn't live very long.
I was able to buy some land from them after all this happened when I moved here. Nobody wanted any of it, and they where getting rid of it for cheap.
I also learned by talking to a lot of people in the area that the real problem was an old leather tannery that used to be in operation a few miles up stream that was a toxic dump, but it has been out of business and closed down for decades. They felt that if there really was a problem, that it came from the chemicals used to tan cow hides back in the 50's until it closed down in the 80's. There is no money suing a non existent company, so the lawyers went after the big money and created a case based on hiring experts that manipulated the data to reflect what they wanted it to.
The person who worked for the company that I bought the land from told me that it was cheaper for them to settle when they did before it went national, and it would have cost them a lot more money. Just a math thing for them to pay a small amount and have it go away then drag it out and risk paying a lot more.
I don't know if this is similar to the asbestos lawsuits, but I do believe it is exactly how the black mold issue came about. When I see law firms on TV asking if you have ever been sick with whatever it is that they are looking for victims to sue over, I think about that too.
And to really wonder off course, a buddy back in CA was part of a big lawsuit against one of the bigger banks there. When it was all said and done, his portion of the settlement was about a thousand dollars. He was excited about this free money, but then found out that they where paying it out quarterly in a very small amount, and that it would take 30 years to receive the full amount. The lawyers where paid their full amount right away.
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That is common in all those lawsuits involving lots of people, the ones promoted on TV. For a really good look at the scam, read "The King of Torts" by John Grisham.
Wife suckered into one of them, final settlement was less than a $100. We spent more than that on gas in the required travel for testing, taking of testimony, etc.
